Dear Sally, in Liverpool,
Though you say the article made your blood boil, i must say, your response to it has left me with a higher temperature than yours.
i support your sympathy for women who suffer from alcohol addiction. and there's hardly a birth control method that is entirely fool proof. an interesting word - the word, fool.
but, that 's where my sympathy stops. no one has a right to abuse anyone else, and no woman has a right to bring a child into the world, where she cannot control her life to where it is one that is responsible enough to raise a child.
if a woman can't stay off alcohol for 9 months, a time that she knows will possibly define much of her child's cognitive and emotional future, how does she think she can be a good mother who will provide a healthy, alcohol- moderate environment, that every child is entitled to?
i fear in our society of self- absorption and acceptance of addiction, we forgot who loses most- the child.

Vanesa H. kee, bayfiled, Ontario, Canada

some comments on here make my blood boil.. the small mindedness is unbelievable!!.. the self satisified im alright jack attitude ! shame on you .. there are a lot of women out there suffering deeply from alcohol problems .. does this mean they are not human .. they are not worthy of happiness and of having children... ??? yes absolutly i agree you should not drink anything at all while pregnant but people make mistakes .. i drank quite heavily while on holiday .. i was taking the contraceptive pill but i became pregnant .... i probably was 5 or 6 weeks pregnant till i realised and every single minute of my life i worry and worry and worry that i may have damaged my child ..i did not drink at all when i found out i was pregnant ..but i did and still do have an alcohol problem...and i suffer very much for it .. stop looking at people with alcohol problems as some kind of lower class scum of the earth!!!.... i would do any thing not to have this problem .

sally, liverpool,

Cor blimey, Dr Thompson in Auckland, very well said, the voice of reason! You are spot on.

Oonagh, Hong Kong,

What about all the fathers to be who drink when trying to make a baby ?

Jean Blome, Bremen, Germany

I am 16 weeks pregnant and did not realise until my 5th week of pregnancy, twice in this 5 week period I was most definately "tipsy", having been at my own wedding and my own hen doo! However, I have not drank a drop of alcohol for 11 weeks and to be honest I do not miss it, it simply isn't worth the "risk", real or imagined.

I have friends who drank the odd glass of wine or two throughout their pregnancy, and one of these friends also smoked - I have to say that it was difficult not to judge on the smoking. We kept quiet but its not that people should be public property, just that they are no longer a priority in our own right. If I were the baby of a smoking mother I would appreciate a well intentioned word to mum .. !

Pam, Nottingham, UK

I have a low tolerance for alcohol as a rule. Which has led me to abstaining more often than not. When attending a party, I consumed more than I usually do not realizing I was pregnant at the time. My son is now 10 yrs old, top of his class, bright, happy, funny and healthier than most of his peers.
I am currently pregnant with my third child and was told by my doctor, zero alcohol. It's a shame we must all be judged on the basis of mothers who drink excessively. Their problem is an addiction problem, be it alcohol, cigerettes, food etc. I make my decisions on the basis of common sense, the evidence I see around me and personal experience- and not the latest headline grabber the media feeds me. Im not thick....Im pregnant!

Che', Kent, u.k

I am 7 month pregnant and I am really sick of people patronizing me about what I should or shouldn't eat or drink. As someone rightly said earlier, pregnat women are not public property! I indulge myself in the occasional glass of Champagne (once a month) withpout feeling remotely guilty about it. What infuriates me most is I can't even drink my weekly cup of coffee without being told that it is bad for the baby blah blah.... Last thing: living in Paris I have been offered a seat on the metro just ONCE in my 7 months of pregnacy (and I take it several times a day), same for my pregnant colleagues and friends.
So it is shocking to see a woman drink a glass of wine from time to time, to see her smoke (I don't smoke though), to see her drink coffee, but NOBODY raises an eyebrow when she is being left to stand on her feet!!!!

Stephanie, Paris, France

Any woman who is confused between heavy drinking and moderate drinking is not fit to be a mother in the first place. Please keep all the confused people on birth control. That is the best protection to any foetus.

Kay, Istanbul,

OK. So hands up, all those who know a woman who has become pregnant, due to drinking alcohol!

Phil, W Yorks, UK

I'm 6 months pregnant and haven't been drinking, but this makes me want to have 2 units a week on principle. This advice is not just dishonest, it's actively damaging to the status of all pregnant women. Men are advised to stick to 21 units a week, despite clear evidence that the highest proportion of alcohol-related deaths and damage to others is caused by them. Why not reduce their limit to zero, if we're not in the business of using scientific information, but just that of sending out 'strong signals'? Presumably it's only good to send out a 'strong signal' if it doesn't upset the gender status quo - let the working man have his 'well earned' 10 pints, but begrudge the pregnant woman her 'selfish' single glass of wine. The lack of scientific justification means there is only one 'strong signal' : the rights of the fetus can be called on to justify any needless attack on pregnant women. If we took a similar approach to the lives of those already born, no one would be allowed to move.

Victoria, Oxford,

Those who are saying “but why not just cut out the alcohol for nine months, you clearly have a problem if you don’t”, are missing the point here.

The key issue is this is not being done is response to any scientific evidence. This has happened because oh, you know, women just can’t be trusted to tell the difference between a small amount of alcohol and heavy drinking, so we’ll just encourage society to ban it all together. This sort of thinking would never have happened twenty or thirty years ago. The government just did not view the populace in the same way, and trusted them more to make their own decisions. THAT is the significance of this kind of thing.

Rachel, Glasgow, Scotland

To the "moral crusader" from Utah - if, by your definition, Sarah has nothing to worry about medically by occaasional moderate drinking during pregnancy then what, pray, does she have to worry about morally? Drinking a glass of wine with her dinner whilst in possession of a vagina?

Please, do share, I would really like to know.

Rachel, Glasgow,

I'm so glad women are angry about this. It is ludicrous to say pregnant women shouldn't drink at all because it can't be proved that it isn't harmful. It is utterly skewed logic. How many other things can't be proved not to be harmful? Presumably if this advice were correct, the latest generation of children would be markedly more intellegent and socially adept than the previous generation where the mothers had higher weekly limits? The French would certainly have produced a nation of dunces. More guilt-inducing, nannyish rubbish designed to make women feel bad. The responsible will feel awful and the irresponsible will ignore it. What a waste of time.

Joanna, London,

What it does not say, iss that the father should also not be drinking at the time of conception. This also has an effect on the quality of sperm, and hence, the quality of the offspring.

Jean Blome, Bremen, Germany

This is another example of nannying. I am five months pregnant and have been drinking one or two units once or twice a week since I found out. I had my 20-week scan last week and the baby was fine. People seem to be intent on worrying pregnant women and laying on them one big guilt trip. If it's not alcohol it's smoking, processed meats, cheese, caffeine...the list is endless. Surely, a relaxed and happy mother-to-be is just as important. I whoeheartedly agree with Maria. Women are being reduced to baby-making machines in my opinion.

Rachel, Birmingham, Birmingham

"Women are often confused about what drinking in moderation really means, the new guidelines say, and surveys suggest that many accidently or deliberately exceed the limit."

Thank the lord for new guidelines! Sometimes I dont think I'd know anything unless some Government body told me. I only hope that more and more of the tax I pay goes towards enlightening research like this...

"It also states that should a pregnant woman choose to carry on drinking, she should not get drunk..."

Genius! Well thats this year's Nobel Prize for Medicine wrapped up.

Rod Munch, Northampton, UK

The best way to deal with alcohol before/during pregnancy is to stop drinking it altogether. Why listen to all these debates and worry about the amount you drink when abstinence from alcohol is clearly the logical and safest option? Whilst a mother-to-be might enjoy the occasional glass or two, in the interests of your baby's health what's wrong with cutting it out for a while?

SM, Nottingham,

And also I think there should be advice to tell pregnant women to stop smoking.

S. Tyrrell, Geneva,

I bet there have been more conceptions initiated through drinking too much than have been hampered.

Adam Brown, london,

This makes my blood boil, which is not good considering I'm pregnant with twins! As a number of people have stated the government should not issue advice without having evidence to back it up.

Plus it's all very well the guys who write in and say women should not drink at all during pregnancy but how many of them abstain from drinking whilst their wife/partner is pregnant? I'm fed up with not just the government but the 'well meaning' general public tut tutting over a couple of glasses of whatever you fancy. What about our mothers who drank and smoked their way through their pregnancies, we all survived and how many of us have FAS or suffered with learning difficulties. Of course it's always easier to blame it on something the mother did whilst pregnant rather than look at the number of children in a classroom with 1 teacher to control them, that to me is where the learning difficulties come into play.

J, London,

If you can't stop drinking for a few months then you are an addict.
Alcohol has become such a crutch in todays society that people overlook the fact that it is a drug — the most commonly used and widely abused psychoactive drug in the world.
I know many people (mostly well-educated) who can't get through the day without a glass or two of wine, or more then a couple of pints of beer - if that isn't drug-dependency then what is?
The Science Select Committee drug report stated that alcohol was rated the fifth most harmful drug, ahead of some current class A drugs, while tobacco was listed as ninth. Cannabis, currently rated a class C drug, was below both those legal stimulants at 11th. Alcohol is currently unclassified but if it was to be discovered today experts say it would be classed as a category A drug.

Sophia, Vancouver, Canada

I think that medical advice which sacrifices factual accuracy for impact will only serve to undermine public confidence in such advice.

James, Cambridge, UK

How ridiculous. Why not let health professionals set the guidelines, therefore avoiding the confusion. It is not rocket science to figure out what two small glasses of wine look like and once a week is also easy enought for 99% of the population to understand. Additionally from what I understand most women can't stand the smell of alcohol when they are pregnant and therefore in my logical mind you would have to be quite determined to over-ride that.

Alison, London,

It's wise advice even if there isn't any new medical evidence, especially when you consider how much of a drinking culture there is in Britain! I think it's very good news and about time that Britain joins the list of countries which recommend abstinence to pregnant women.

Maureen , Ware, Hertfordshire , England

I really think it is not an exaggeration to say that this kind of thing is leading us down a very sinister route.

So - there is no medical evidence that drinking a small amount during pregnancy is harmful, NO new evidence has emerged. Yet the government has simply "decided" that that their official "guidelines" will now state that we should not drink at all during pregnancy. Firstly, they are utterly contradicting themselves. We should not drink at all in case it is harmful, but women who did drink moderately during pregnancy should not worry, because it is not harmful. Drinking even one glass of wine during pregnancy will, of course, very quickly become taboo. Who would want to be seen as someone who wants to drink so much that they would go against official government guidelines? And yet nothing, medically, has changed. More and more of how we choose to live, what we "can" and "cannot" do, is being dicated by the government. This is not right.

Rachel, Edinburgh,

As adoptive parents of two young children with Foetal Alcohol Syndrome we are relieved that this debate is getting more media coverage. We can well understand the view that this is scare mongering, but having seen the affects on our children I cannot strress the importance of raising this issue. Even one 'binge' session, which constitutes 3 or more units of alcohol is enough to cause some life long damage to the developing foetus. This will of course scare lots of women and worry more, the important thing is to get the message across that for some there is no safe level of alcohol. The birth defects caused by alcohol are life long and can have a huge impact on children. Our daughter is quite affected and has a range of learning and behavioural difficulties that make every day living a real challenge for her.

SM, Surrey,

If there is any doubt, why risk it? I agree with the new guidelines. Play it safe. It's only 9 months of your life.

Jennifer, London,

The fact that this new advice has been issued without any new medical evidence to support it is completely wrong. There are already so many mixed messages given to pregnant women concerning alcohol during pregnancy. The government is obviously trying to target a minority of women who "binge drink" during pregnancy. It is both unfair and irresponsible to issue this kind of scare warning when the vast majority of pregnant women are perfectly capable of making sensible and informed decisions.

Louise, Nottingham,

What do you expect.? They have misled the public over health issues time and time again and rather than question the half baked evidence we let them dictate how we live our lives. If alcohol and smoking were really detriimental to foetal health then anyone over the age of 30 would not have been born healthy.

This is scare mongering of the worst sort as it plays on those we care most about. Ignore the health puritans and enjoy a happy relaxed life. Just remember the old maxim "everything in moderation".

MD , London, UK

I know it's not very scientific , but the chances are it was alcohol that got most of Britain's young mothers-to-be pregnant in the first place.

Swilly Tisher, Loch Maree, Scotland

It is not the "Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists' [decision]... to stick with its original advice" that "could leave pregnant women confused" but the government's decision to change its guidance in the absence of any clinical evidence. This government is too fond of "sending signals", even using legislation to do so. In this case, though, do they really think this will stop an irresponsible minority of pregnant women from drinking heavily? Sarah from Coventry is a case in point and in my humble opinion as a father of two children born to my moderately drinking wife, she should stop worrying and enjoy herself.

Michael, London,

At present, 91% of pregnant women drink alcohol within recommended levels. Change recommended levels to zero, and a lot of women will be drinking above them. Given that it will be perfectly safe for them to do so, and that they will be doing so with the support of the medical profession, how exactly will health workers identify the ones who are in fact drinking too much and provide appropriate advice or treatment if required? Saying “you’re drinking more than the guidelines” will be pointless, when the professional bodies concerned are stating publicly that the guidelines are not evidence based. Women are not idiots incapable of understanding anything but the most black and white advice. Better education and improved services to help women with serious drink problems will do a lot more good than frightening and stressing women who are not in fact putting their child at risk - and there's lots of real evidence that stress in pregnancy harms both mother and child.

Catherine, oxford,

We run a small online company called The Alcohol-Free Shop and we sell a wide range of alcohol-free wines and beers. A lot of our customers are pregnant women or breast-feeding mothers who know it is best to avoid alcohol whilst pregnant and nursing. The drinks industry doesn't do enough to promote alcohol-free alternatives and makes it hard for women to exercise a real choice which is why we have built up a range of of alternatives from around the world. You can visit us at www.alcoholfree.co.uk.

John, Manchester,

It's all well and good that you when you find out your pregnant to stop drinking, but to completely stop drinking when trying to conceive could lead to an obsession and deep depression. As on average it takes a couple up to a year to conceive, therefore you have to give up your weekends of having a glass of wine in the hopes that you become pregnant and every month that your not can lead into anxiety and effect your normal everyday life.

kim, st albans,

What does this crazy 'moral' person mean in attacking Sarah's morals... you are fine Sarah medically and morally. That you are worried shows you will be a great mother.
Does this person and this argument suggest we should wrap ourselves up in cotton wool within a nanny state just in case we expose ourselves to the many demon of modern society, with no mind of our own to decide for ourselves. Morals! You are having a laugh!

julia, london,

Haven't we all lost the ability of apply common sense to our healthy living. Being pregnant is like being a landlady. Would you like your tenant to have a lovely healthy stay and provide the best for him or her during their stay? We don't need anyone to tell us at all! It is a matter of taking responsibility of our own body and taking responsibility of our youngs.

Magdalene Mei Halkes, Canterbury, England

As Maria says, women are finding themselve regarded as public property in a way that is quite unacceptable. The advice on nutrition and risks in pregnancy varies from country to country and changes with the wind such that following is an impossible wild goosechase. If we are to believe current advice it is a wonder that any of us survived our mothers' pregnancies! It all smacks too much of an agenda to rein in women's behaviour.

Lynn, Aylesbury,

Sarah, it's pretty obvious you have nothing to worry about, medically. But morally?

Moral crusader, Utah,

Guidelines are there to inform people who make choices. Women who drink enough to harm their children often do not drink out of choice, but merely out of habit. How many of them are aware that drinking could harm their babies, and how many are aware that they are pregant until it becomes obvious?

Scaring the careful is not going to make the problem go away.

Niel Malan, Pretoria, South Africa

This really hacks me off - so in order to rein in those who have too much those of us who exercise true restraint with small amounts of alcohol at infrequent intervals are going to be made into pariahs? Unjust. Any fool can give advice which curtails a pregnant woman's freedoms, whist taking the moral high ground that its safer for the baby to avoid all risk, and if she doesn't see that she must be selfish. However as the NCT says "we need less advice and more evidence", lest we never leave the houses for fear of unknown but feasible risks.

Nicky T, Birmingham,

it is very patronising. the government says 1 thing but health professionals advice another, this is the way people will learn not to trust government guilelines .

why can't instead, they just try to educate young woman properly at school. i'm sure that if all those mothers who are drinking in excess, really new the true harm they are doing to their unborn babyies, they would stop. no one in their right mind wants to harm a baby. unless you are sick or misinformed!

properly informed is what they need, not misleading information!

a, london,

It is irresponsible for a government to issue notices without proper evidence, however the logic of the situation is that a liquid which can make adults fall down or do silly things and actually poisons some people should not be consumed by pregnant women for at least the child's sake. All the evidence can be seen at weekends in most towns. ;-)

Dave Madley, Alicante, Spain

ı am entirely agree with the doctors.pregnant women must not smoke during their pregnancy period.

angela, turkey/kastamonu,

I am six months pregnant and very confused by the mixed messages that are being given. I have been drinking up to two units of alcohol once or twice a week, and now have the stress of worrying if I have unintentionally done any harm to my unborn baby.

Sarah, Coventry, England

Issuing advice that has not been backed up with good evidence is irresponsible. It leaves women drinking very moderatly while pregnant open to abusive and denigrating remarks from "well meaning" strangers if they are seen having a glass of wine with dinner in a restaurant. Government guidelines into peoples personal lives should be kept to an absolute minimum and not used for scaremongering. The notion that terrifying everyone to reach those few who are binge drinking during pregnancy will be effective is absurd.

Maria, London,

What is that women have done to deserve this meddling into every aspect of our lives? Why is that grown up, adult responsible women are less important than their children even if they haven't been conceived yet! There are "no safe guidelines" on the level of alcohol that can be consumed during pregnancy as the trials that could determine that wouldn't be ethical! A total ban on alcohol during pregnancy will only be heeded by women who already follow the baseless guidelines anyway. Why should they be scared into believing that low and safe alcohol consumption will harm their baby?
It is just another example of the women and parent bashing that seems to be part of US and UK culture, which is a good way of taking the focus off the real problem faced by families-a rampant consumer culture that encourages long work hours and is anti family life.
No wonder women are drinking more, the government and its non-accountable "experts" are piling on enough pressure to make them mental wrecks.

Dr Thompson, Auckland, New Zealand